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Barrera to resume his career; wife gives him permission to continue

By Chris Williams: Former three division world champion Marco Antonio Barrera (67-7, 44 KO’s) says his wife has given him permission to resume his boxing career after two years out of the ring.

Barrera, 39, hasn’t faced a quality opponent since he was beaten by Amir Khan four years ago in a fight that he lost by a 5th round technical decision due to a cut on his forehead produced by a head-butt.

Barrera said to the Sports.inquirer.net “My wife has given her permission for two more fights, provided they’re against top notch opponents.”

Well, I guess that explains all the compliments that Barrera has been smothering Manny Pacquiao for the last with his trip to the Philippines. Barrera has been as nice as he possibly could be to Pacquiao, saying how Juan Marquez got lucky when he knocked Pacquiao out cold, and how Pacquiao isn’t losing his skills yet.

Barrera wants to fight top guys. Do you think he just wants to come to fight top guys that aren’t stars? I think Barrera is totally going for a fight with Pacquiao. I believe that’s the whole purpose of his trip to the Philippines. I could be wrong, but if he’s looking for two top notch opponents for him to fight wouldn’t you think Pacquiao would be one of them?

The question is would Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum agree to fight someone who hasn’t seen action in two years, and who hasn’t won a big fight in 9 years since his 12 round majority decision over Erik Morales in 2004.

Barrera has lost to Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao and Khan since then, while beating a handful of mediocre opponents.

I’d like to think that Arum would say no to a Pacquiao-Barrera fight, but you just never know. I could see him making that fight because there would be a lot of Mexican fans that would scoop it up on pay-per-view. Pacquiao has already easily beaten Barrera twice.

The last time Pacquiao beat Barrera was in 2007 in a fight that was more like a sparring session than an actual fight because Pacquiao appeared to be carrying Barrera in that one. Pacquiao didn’t look like he was trying to obliterate Barrera like he could have.